


sometimes, you just have impromptu baking competitions

by nerdiests



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Baking, Baking competitions, Fluff, Four (Linked Universe) likes baking, Gen, Linked Universe, Warriors and Twilight (Linked Universe) are Bros, overt descriptions of cakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:17:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23267923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiests/pseuds/nerdiests
Summary: the ragtag group of links are staying at time and malon's abode for a while, and wild suggests a team-building exercise. albeit an unorthodox one.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 274





	sometimes, you just have impromptu baking competitions

**Author's Note:**

> hi hello i know i just had something up last week but this!! this is for the linked universe discord's one year celebration! this was written for chaoticchild on the discord, who asked for fluff of any kind, so here i am with straight fluff for you!! i really hope that you enjoy it!!

Despite being in a group of nine people, Warriors could count on one hand how many of them had any talent at all for cooking or baking. It was one. Wild was the  _ only _ person in their entire group that had any sense of what to do in the kitchen. Warriors himself was good at making a few dishes that one couldn’t really mess up, but other than that? Horrible. And everyone in the group knew how bad Hyrule was when cooking was involved. 

Which is why what they were doing baffled him so much. 

“A bake-off?  _ Really? _ ” Legend asked, leaning against the counter as Hyrule whisked a bowl of… Something. And Hyrule was whisking  _ very _ wildly. Time sighed from where he stood on Hyrule’s other side. 

“Absolutely! For one, if we end up baking together, we can try one another’s treats,  _ and _ you can think of it as a team-building exercise!” Wild replied from where he was dicing some sort of root. A carrot, maybe? Were Wild, Wind, and Sky making a carrot cake?

“You don’t have room to comment if you aren’t helping,” Four said, flicking his wrist as he mixed together the wet ingredients. Warriors laughed at that, almost paying no mind to what he was mixing together. 

“Warriors, you need to make sure you don’t overmix that,” Twilight said, leaning over from his small counter space where he was mashing wildberries in a pot. 

“Coming from the man mashing up wildberries,” Warriors replied, focusing his attention back on the dry ingredients he was mixing together. He didn’t want to do what Hyrule was doing and get flour absolutely  _ everywhere _ . There was flour on his tunic, over the counter, and a bit got on his face. Mixed with the look of concentration on Hyrule’s face… Warriors could say that if he had a younger brother, Hyrule absolutely would remind him of said brother. Well. Other than Wind. Who was, speaking of,  _ also _ getting flour everywhere. 

“Wind, you need to be careful!” Sky said, pointing his spoon at Wind in a chastising move. Wind shrugged, before going back to mixing everything and sending more flour flying. From where he stood, Warriors could see the pain on Time’s face. Turning to Twilight, Warriors raised an eyebrow. 

“This is a competition, we don’t need to worry about the old man,” Twilight replied, reaching across the counter and grabbing a substance that Warriors couldn’t name, even though he  _ lived _ with a baker.

“This ‘old man’ can still hear you, Twilight,” Time said from where he stood, mixing together… Eggs, Warriors thought. Probably something else too, but he couldn’t be sure. Twilight laughed, adding that unidentified substance to the mashed wildberries. 

“That was the intent,” he replied, right as Warriors got an elbow to the side. Four stood next to him, making a grabby hands motion. 

“I need the dry ingredients to mix them in with the wet ingredients, gimme,” Four said, and as Warriors laughed he passed the bowl over. Four pouted for a moment, before heading back to his borrowed counter space in Time and Malon’s kitchen. And now… Warriors was completely empty-handed. 

“What to do… What to do…” Warriors muttered to himself, looking around the borrowed space. Warriors knew he wasn’t a good baker, but there had to be  _ something _ he could do in this moment. 

As in answer to his thoughts, Four shoved a bowl into his empty arms.

“Cream these together,” Four said, before going back to commandeering their corner of Time and Malon’s kitchen. Warriors looked down at the bowl in his hands for a moment, before meeting eyes with Twilight. He only shrugged. Twilight knew about as much as Warriors himself did about this, so Warriors sighed and started mixing together the contents of the bowl Four had shoved into his arms. 

The kitchen was filled with a few too many people to be comfortable, but Warriors supposed they all made it work. Twilight, Four, and himself all took up their space, even if Four was essentially just shoving things into their arms and likely hoping for the best. Wild, Wind, and Sky were all having fun - though Wind was making a mess that would be an absolute  _ pain _ to clean up. Hyrule, Legend, and Time were… Trying. Well, Hyrule was trying, at any rate. Legend looked like he was trying to prevent Hyrule from committing an atrocity to baked goods, and Time just looked tired. 

Either way, it was an interesting competition. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Wild suggesting it still, but at least they’d all be getting somewhat tasty treats out of it. And yet… The chaos in the kitchen around them invited trouble. 

“How did a  _ marble _ get in here?’ Legend asked incredulously, scooping out said marble from the cake batter Hyrule had just poured into a pan. Hyrule blinked, squinted, and grinned.

“I’ve been looking for that for ages! Gimme that!” Hyrule said, taking the marble off the spoon and shoving it into a pocket of his tunic without a care for the cake batter still on it. Time facepalmed as Legend stared incredulously. 

“I…  _ Why _ .”

Warriors laughed from across the kitchen at Legend’s expression - he was still working at the frosting for the cake that Four had just put into the oven - and mixed together the cream cheese and butter with renewed fervor. He might not be good at making most things, but damn if Warriors couldn’t mix things together. If he could make good mashed potatoes, then he could make good frosting. That was his logic, at any rate.

Twilight, meanwhile, had just taken the wildberry sauce off the stovetop, only for the pot containing it to be immediately put back on. 

“Give it another minute. Trust me. Then we leave it to cool,” Four cut in, and Twilight put his hands up, moving back from the stove as Four stirred the wildberry sauce over the stovetop. He blew the few strands of hair not caught by his impromptu ponytail out of his face as he stirred. 

“Didn’t expect Four to be so intense about this,” Twilight said to Warriors, who only snorted.

“Sometimes you find all sorts of things in the unexpected,” he replied, right as a cloud of flour appeared yet again. Must’ve been Wind. Again. 

“Oops!”  _ Sky? _ Warriors glanced over to see Sky looking at the floor as the flour started to settle. Time’s one visible eye looked to be extremely pained as Wind started laughing. 

“You dropped an  _ entire bag _ of flour!” Wind said in between his laughs. Sky, at least, had the decency to go and grab a broom to start sweeping up the errant flour. Wind had no such qualms whenever he made a mess. 

“At least he’s cleaning up after himself,” Wild said from where he was rapidly mixing together his cake batter. Wind gasped, and as the two started to teasingly bicker and Sky continued to sweep, the kitchen was filled with laughs. It was a pleasant atmosphere. 

Pretty soon, everyone’s cakes were finished, iced, and ready to be consumed. Four looked extremely confident in the work the trio had done. Twilight looked a bit skeptical, while Warriors was just happy everything was done. The other groups looked to have a similar outlook - or at least Time and Legend did. Wind looked ecstatic, Wild looked curious, and Sky and Hyrule both looked happy. 

“Shall we taste-test, then?” Wild asked. Most everyone nodded - excluding, yet again, Time and Legend - and Wild pushed forward his group’s cake first. Wild, Wind, and Sky had all made a carrot cake with toasted chickaloo nuts from Wild’s Hyrule sprinkled on top. Carefully, Wild cut out nine pieces - leaving a tenth piece for Malon, presumably - and passed the pieces around. 

“Not bad,” Hyrule commented, not bothering to pause between bites of cake. He… Wasn’t using a fork. That’s fair, but also. Cake isn’t a finger food unless it’s a cupcake? And these aren’t? Cupcakes?

“I… Forks?” Legend asked, baffled. Hyrule only tilted his head. 

“What about them?” Hyrule replied. Legend, for a moment, looked as if he was contemplating saying something, but inevitably decided against it. With that out of the way, Warriors picked up his own fork and took a bite. 

The carrots added some texture, which he was at least thankful for. The cake itself was airy, though it was a bit denser than Warriors personally liked. Personally? Warriors loved a good sponge cake, but this carrot cake was wonderful. The frosting was creamy without being overtly so, and the chickaloo nuts sprinkled atop the cake - and inside it, as a matter of fact - added an extra bit of texture that overall made it a pleasant cake to try. He might have to write a few things down for… Personal reference. Yes. Absolutely. 

“I like the flavor,” Warriors said, in lieu of his thoughts. Twilight nodded next to him, having shovelled most of his slice of cake into his mouth. Sometimes, you just need to eat cake.

“What else would we expect from the group with our resident chef?” Time commented. Wind preened while Wild just grinned.

“Can’t discount Wind and Sky - they helped out a lot. Would’ve taken a lot longer if we weren’t all working together,” Wild said. Wind’s preening grew more obvious, while Sky smiled from where he stood. 

“Us next!” Hyrule said, shoving his group’s cake forward. It was… Interesting, to say the least. There were peeks of red cake from behind the icing, and Warriors  _ guessed _ that there were shavings of chocolate on top of the cake. Wild yet again cut out nine slices, leaving the last for Malon, and passed around the pieces. The tasting went the same as the last did. 

Warriors wasn’t sure what type of cake this was, but it tasted a lot like chocolate. It wasn’t as airy as he preferred his cakes to be, and the cream cheese frosting was a bit chunky. Not to say it wasn’t bad! It was just… Chunky. And the red coloring with the chocolate flavor was a bit… Disconcerting. At least the garnish atop the cake was some sort of nut, and not chocolate. Chocolate on top of chocolate was not the ideal topping, Warriors thought. No need for a chocolate overload when you could throw something to mix up flavors that complimented the chocolate flavor, thank you very much. 

“What do you think?” Hyrule asked, curious. 

“It’s… A bit disconcerting to see red and chocolate together, but it’s a good cake,” Warriors replied. Wild looked down at it for a moment.

“I’ve never seen this type of cake before, what is it?” he asked.

“It’s called red velvet - it’s from my time period,” Legend replied. Hyrule nodded.

“I wanted to try something from Legend’s time! And it was fun to make, even if Legend was hovering the entire time,” Hyrule said, laughing as Legend pointedly looked away. 

“And now I suppose it’s our turn,” Four took his opportunity to speak up. Warriors and Twilight nodded from where they stood next to him, and Four passed over their cake. It might only be vanilla cake, but they had a filling. And Warriors was excited about seeing what everyone else thought. ...And trying the cake himself. As Wild cut apart the cake and passed around the customary nine slices with the last left for Malon, Warriors was nearly bouncing in place. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but  _ goddess _ if sweets weren’t his vice. 

The vanilla-wildberry cake was  _ delicious _ . The filling added that extra sweetness where the cake itself didn’t, and added that extra punch of flavor. The cake was moist, the frosting was perfectly creamy (and he had himself to thank for that), and the filling didn’t seep into the cake. Sure, the vanilla seemed a bit plain on the outside, especially since the frosting was white, but the wildberries definitely made up for it. Sometimes, a splash of color is all you really need in a cake. All in all? A delicious cake, and one that Warriors was hoping he’d be able to get the recipe for. 

“This is  _ delicious, _ ” Wild remarked, taking a bite of the cake. Wind nodded, as did Hyrule.

“Four did most of the work, honestly,” Twilight said, gesturing to the shortest of their number. Four’s face went pink, and he brushed back some of the hair from his face. He hadn’t taken his little ponytail out, and it was cute, in a way. 

“I like baking,” Four said, not meeting eyes with anyone at the table. Warriors patted his shoulder, grinning.

“Well, that produced a killer cake, Four,” Warriors said. At that, Four looked up.

“I couldn’t’ve done it without you or Twilight, Warriors,” Four said, a small smile on his face. Warriors’ grin only grew larger.

“Although we should probably clean up before-”

“Before what?” 

The owner of the exact voice none of them had wanted to hear at that exact moment walked into the room. Malon, arms laden with groceries and such, stopped in the doorway to the kitchen.

“What a  _ mess! _ You boys are going to be cleaning up, right?” Malon asked, raising an eyebrow at their group.

“Of course! I just mentioned it,” Warriors said, straightening up. Malon looked over at him, before turning to Time. 

“And what exactly were the nine of you doing in the kitchen, honey?” Malon asked. Time looked away for only a moment.

“We were baking, and we all left slices of cake for you,” Wild cut in, before Time could say anything. Malon’s brow rose at that, surprised.

“Oh! You didn’t have to do that! Don’t think that gets y’all out of cleaning, though,” Malon said, walking over to the table to grab the slices of cake left for her. 

“Of course not!” Wild said, starting to grab the plates left over from the cake tasting and taking them to be washed. Malon laughed as she sat down and the rest of them all gravitated to working on cleaning. 

“This was a fun time,” Warriors said to Twilight as the duo washed off their dishes from their cake making endeavors. 

“Absolutely. I don’t think I’ll do it again, but it was fun,” Twilight replied. 

“I’m glad Wild suggested it.”

“Yeah. I am too.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi hello all, i have! tumblr! if you'd like to check it out, [here](http://nerdiests.tumblr.com) is a link!!


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